Taize a prayerful blend of music, light

When I pushed the church door open in front of me, all I could see were candles. On the altar, on the floor, in the cinder blocks stacked beside – wait, cinder blocks? In a church? What was going on?

I was in St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Winterport, there to play flute at a Taize prayer service.

And yes, there really were cinder blocks stacked around and beside the altar.

The Rev. Robert Vaillancourt, pastor of St. Gabriel’s, St. Matthew’s in Hampden and St. Theresa’s in Brewer, keeps them as part of his “Taize set,” bringing them with him from church to church and arranging them in stacks, stair steps and cross shapes in front of and beside the altar.

On top of the blocks and inside their two or four open squares, he sets white votive candles, which are all that light the church for the service. That night in Winterport, the only electric lights on were two small spotlights, one aimed at the crucifix on the wall and one at the exposed Eucharist, held in a monstrance – a display vessel used to display the Eucharist during adoration or a prayer service – set atop the altar.

Taize (pronounced teh-ZAY) services are nondenominational prayer services, not Roman Catholic Masses. They were started by a community of Catholic lay brothers in Taize, France, in 1944 and are known all over the world as a beautiful blend of music, prayer and candlelight.

They have only recently become popular in the United States and Canada, spreading as more and more people bring the experience back from France to share with their friends. While the service itself is not specifically Catholic and all are welcome, the services held in Winterport and Hampden are Catholic style, with the Eucharist exposed on the altar throughout the service.

So there I was, standing in the doorway of a half-empty church the size of a breadbox, staring at a beautiful display of candles and colored draperies. People were still milling around the front, adjusting spotlights, lighting candles and helping Vaillancourt stretch red, yellow and orange drapes from the wall to the floor. Eventually, they got everything just right and dispersed to sit back in the pews with the 25 or so other people there that night.

I walked up to the balcony and sat with the other musicians. The pianist, singer and guitarist were all sitting at the edge of the balcony, tuning and warming up while I unpacked my flute and looked at the music they handed me.

I had been told that the service was going to be the loveliest thing I had ever heard, that the music was gorgeous. All I saw on the pages, though, were simple scale melodies and a few harmonic parts for the flute – nothing that looked special.

Then Vaillancourt came upstairs.

He conducts Taize services from the back of the church with the musicians, unlike celebrating Mass from the altar up front. We rehearsed a couple of songs, and then Vaillancourt asked me to play the counterpoint melody while he and Jaime, the singer, sang harmony together. Their soft tenor voices blended perfectly, and the flute and keyboard counterparts were beautiful.

The church, set up to resemble the services in Taize, France, glowed with light and warmth from the hundreds of little flames, but it was the music that really made the service amazing.

Simple rounds coaxed the congregation to sing along, and after the second or third time through, Vaillancourt and Jaime would quietly split off into harmonies while I played yet another harmonic line on my flute. As the voices of the congregation drifted back to us, I knew this intimate evening was worth a 40-minute drive from Orono and back.

Erin McNamara is a Bangor Daily News copy editor. The next Taize prayer service will be at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, July 30, at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church on Route 1A in Winterport. For information, contact Vaillancourt at 862-3517 or Larry McNamara at 567-3014.